"Cecil E. Chapman" wrote
As y'all know I'm working on my instrument rating (only 15 hours into it so
far). I just had to mention a WONDERFUL aid that I found in practicing nav
radio navigation practice: OnTop IFR Proficiency Simulator.

Good for you. Personally, I have NO idea why the use of PC-based
flight sim products has not become universal in instrument training.
OnTop is fine, as is MS and others. In the past few years, the flight
models on all of them have come so far that for instrument purposes
(where maneuvers are limited to relatively shallow banks and a fairly
narrow speed range) the realism is more than adequate.

Now of course
I realize it can't be used for real simulator time

So what? That's not the point. The point is that instead of mentally
rehearsing the procedures to be flown (chair-flying) you can do it
with a high degree of realism. The instrument rating is quite easily
achievable in 40 instrument hours, but requires extensive ground
training (either solo or with an instructor). Any of the flight sim
products make the ground training dramatically more effective. I
always recommend them to all my instrument students.

Now what I would REALLY like is a 'multiplayer' version for student
training. Ideally it would allow me to network in a second PC, show
me all the same instrument indications the student is getting, plus a
moving map presentation of where the student is, and the ability to
fail his instruments. With something like this, I could really make
procedures training efficient and save the airtime for working on
important things we can't do in the sim like XC in actual weather,
circling maneuvers, and other stuff that can't effectively be
simulated.

Michael